Funeral

Taken from a recent interview on the Metal Hammer site:

"But the most stirring songs on Ocean Machine are those that confront that cruel plane of existence head on. Life, a sonically uplifting rumination on the preciousness of existence, and Funeral, a hymn-like address punctuated with desperate cries, were written following the death of 16-year-old schoolmate Jesse Cadman. On the evening of October 18, 1992, he was senselessly stabbed.

“He was killed walking home by a group of kids that wanted his hat,” says Devin quietly.

Though Devin and Jesse weren’t close, Devin was good friends with Jesse’s sister. He also played in local band Grey Skies, of which Jesse was a fan. When it came to organising his funeral, the Cadmans asked Devin to speak in church – something that left an indelible impact on him.

“I hadn’t experienced death in a tangible way prior to that, so when we went to the funeral and I had to speak, I remember I hadn’t anticipated they were gonna bring the body out, and I just panicked,” he says. “I couldn’t cope with it, and I wasn’t alone in that, either. It was a real heavy time for a lot of people, because it was our first experience with that sort of thing, and it was senseless. It affected my teen years profoundly.”

Jesse’s parents became involved in youth work and politics, and Devin is moved to learn that his mum, Dona Cadman, has publicly spoken alongside the mother of her son’s killer. “It’s a testament to the parts of the human condition that are worth fighting for,” he says."

http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-03-17/the-story-behind-devin-townsend-ocean-machine

This is my favorite Devin Townsend song. Not only that, but my favorite song by anyone, ever. It evokes feelings that are hard to describe.

As for the meaning. A little hard to decipher, but I believe it is about a loss of individuality, but not neccessarily by Devin. I think Devin is reffering to his old self as "Jesus." (For most of the song, in the chorus he sings "the funeral in the rain." However, near the end, he says "my funeral in the rain"). Devin "watched him go," seeing his old self leave.

"Jesus was a poor boy," meaning before the person lost his/her individuality, he/she was poor, but not neccessarily financially.

My favorite minute of music ever starts at about 4:20 in the song (haha, pot). I'm not sure about "The day's gone and the year's gone," but "Tell me why he went.." seems to be the person not understanding why he lost his former self. It is an element to the mystery.

This song seems pretty hard to decipher to me, but I think that it is a tribute to a person's former self, the life and "funeral" (death) of it. Or, I could just fuck off.

I'm pretty sure Dev posted on Formspring (or something like that) that this song was about the death of a close friend.

It's commonly known that Dev wrote this for a in reference to a person he lost when he was young. Where I grew up, something similar happened. Three friends I'd known since elementary school were messing with a gun they didn't know was loaded and armed. One guy shot the other in the face killing him instantly. We were only 16. It was just the previous spring that the guy who got shot had wrote in my yearbook that we needed to get together over the summer. I ran into him a few times that summer and then tragically, he was killed when school started at the end of summer. It hit hard. You're not prepared at that age to deal with those things. The guy who shot him was never the same. He become hostile, defensive, very reclusive and menacing. It wasn't long after that his family moved out of the school district. But in listening to this song it's so relatable and I think I can understand the mindset that Dev was in when he wrote the song. It's been 35 years and I can still remember the shock and feeling of senselessness and loss. I can still see my friends smile. I still remember how he walked. His kind personality. He was just a cool dude. You're still remembered Dan. See you on the other side brother.

I think manlylove is on the right track with one of the meanings. The other more obvious meaning I've gathered from the song is about death. The song deals with concepts such as salvation and death. 'spring clean for the may queen' is a reference to the simple ease and routine dying is for someone. It's also a lyric in 'Stairway to heaven', see what I'm getting at?

The song appears to be discussing the death of someone, trying for others to accept the death as a natural thing, and the fact that all is left from the person is words. The song also questions the reason for death and seems to ask why Jesus would die, as it's an element to the mystery of death.

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven